Cycling money though current accounts?

YorkshireBoy

ashnojutsu wrote: »

No regular savers.

Then why HSBC and FD? Switching incentives only? You're missing out on a good bit of interest by not grabbing 50% more interest on £6,600 by drip-feeding from a 3% account...and an awful lot more once Santander drops to 1.5% in November!

Santander 123 is maxed out, YorkshireBoy. What do you guys think is the best approach?

I'd still go with the approach I gave you earlier.

ashnojutsu

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

Then why HSBC and FD? Switching incentives only? You're missing out on a good bit of interest by not grabbing 50% more interest on £6,600 by drip-feeding from a 3% account...and an awful lot more once Santander drops to 1.5% in November!

Wouldn't 5k in a 3rd BOS Vantage give me more interest (£150), than either of the regular saving accounts? I know in total the £6,600 would earn roughly £211, but it's a pain to manage the small payments to keep the regular savers topped up. Also, I will probably dump the FD in 6 months to get the £100 farewell gift!

Ballard

I transfer between my accounts manually as it only takes a few minutes every month but I think that if I were to go the SO route I'd transfer £500 every Wednesday. That's below the account balance of each account and would ensure that each account gets sufficient funding every month. There are obviously fewer bank holidays on Wednesdays but that shouldn't matter as it'd still be sent the next working day anyway.

YorkshireBoy

ashnojutsu wrote: »

Wouldn't 5k in a 3rd BOS Vantage give me more interest (£150), than either of the regular saving accounts? I know in total the £6,600 would earn roughly £211

Plus the £107 it'll make at 3% whilst waiting to be transferred to the 6% regular savers. So the correct comparison is £318 vs £150. I know which I'd rather have!

but it's a pain to manage the small payments to keep the regular savers topped up.

A pain? You're already funding HSBC and FD. You just return less to the source account.

Also, I will probably dump the FD in 6 months to get the £100 farewell gift.

The regular saver rates mentioned are fixed. The current account rates you're favouring are variable...and Santander have already varied theirs.

ashnojutsu

[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]I will be transferring funds to the high interest accounts on the 1st of November, so the effective interest rate will 1.5%. Using the MSE calculator, the results are thus:

After drip-feeding the cash for 12 months...

Total interest earned: £141
£25 from the santander & £116 in the FD regular saver.

Compare that to keeping in Santander (£54) plus farewell gift (£100) means I'm better off NOT opening the FD regular saver, right?

BUT, the big factor is if BOS, Lloyds etc keep their variable interest rates high, this is the only thing from going all-in on the high interest accounts, and what makes the regular savers reliable at least. Also, i would need to keep at least £4,000 in the 123 to at least pay off the monthly fee, so perhaps the HSBC regular saver will be an option after all, as I will have sufficient funds to may the monthly payments of £250.[/FONT]

dggar

ashnojutsu wrote: »

Okay these are the accounts I am setting up:

HSBC Advance (£1750 monthly pay-in)
Nationwide Flexdirect (£1000 monthly pay-in)
Club Lloyds (£1500 monthly pay-in)
2 x BOS Vantage (£1000 monthly pay-in)
First Direct (£1000 monthly pay-in)
Co-Op (£800 monthly pay-in)
Halifax (£750 monthly pay-in)

No regular savers.

Either I cycle the £1750 through the accounts (splitting the amount once HSBC & Lloyds are done to quicken the cycle), or go with the hub & spoke configuration.

I get what you are saying YoungandRetired, but I won't be keeping money in HSBC, 1st Direct, Co-op, or Halifax, so the issue of bounced S.O's still remains.

Santander 123 is maxed out, YorkshireBoy. What do you guys think is the best approach?

I hold 3 BOS Vantage acounts and do an internal cycle of £1000 through each account on the same day i.e.
V1->£1K->V2->£1K->V3->£1K->V1 so any delay for weekends affects all three accounts equally.


When I log on to Halifax I can also see my 3 BOS vantage accounts and when I log on to Bank of Scotland I can see my Halifax account so it may be possible to include Halifax into the cycle, though I haven't tried this.

skyepark

Nationwide did charge me for not having enough funds when having an SO the same day, FD is nice to give you until the same afternoon. Setting up SO is easier after having lots if accounts. I get a headache with the more complex logins..

bob_a_builder

if I were to go the SO route I'd transfer £500 every Wednesday. ..... There are obviously fewer bank holidays on Wednesdays

But most ? accounts ( all of mine) set SOs up based on the day of the month i.e 1 thru 31 rather than the day of the week i.e. "every wednesday" so eventually you will hit a bank holiday

agrinnall

bob_a_builder wrote: »

But most ? accounts ( all of mine) set SOs up based on the day of the month i.e 1 thru 31 rather than the day of the week i.e. "every wednesday" so eventually you will hit a bank holiday

Why do a selective quote when this is addressed by Ballard's full post anyway? And most banks will indeed let you set up a day of the week SO, along with a variety of other options. If your bank doesn't perhaps you should consider switching to a more enlightened one.

Ballard wrote: »

There are obviously fewer bank holidays on Wednesdays but that shouldn't matter as it'd still be sent the next working day anyway.

Vortigern

bob_a_builder wrote: »

But most ? accounts ( all of mine) set SOs up based on the day of the month i.e 1 thru 31 rather than the day of the week i.e. "every wednesday" so eventually you will hit a bank holiday

Most banks allow you to to set up standing orders 4-weekly, because some people are paid 4-weekly.

So, for an empty account like Halifax Rewards you can pay in the required amount every 4 weeks on a Wednesday, and send the money back every 4 weeks on a Thursday. You won't hit a bank holiday until December 2018.